Thursday, March 28, 2013

On Eligibility For The Caliphate

The Prophet is the trustee of Allah's revelation, the Last of His Prophets. the giver of tidings of His mercy and the warner for His chastisement.

O' people. the most rightful of all persons for this matter (namely the caliphate) is he who is most competent among them to maintain it, and he who knows best Allah's commands about it. If any mischief is created by a mischief-monger, he will be called upon to repent. If he refuses. he will be fought. By my life, [1] if the question of Imamah was not to be decided unless all the people were present, then there would be no such case. But those who agreed about it imposed the decision on those who were absent, so much so that he who was present could not dissent and the one who was absent could not choose (any one else). Know that I shall fight two persons - one who claims what is not his and the other who ignores what is obligatory upon him. (Nahj Al Balagha, Sermon 127)

According to the 12er shia the mischief-mongers are Abi Bakr (ra) and Umar (ra) for what they did during saqifa. So again why didn't Imam Ali (as) pull out his sword ?

Here is a reply I got a from a Dozener Shia.

@Abdaal

Why didn't Haroon a.s the lion of Allah, Nabi, Rasul, Imam, Caliph of the time, fight Samiri and co, when He a.s saw them making a deity other than Allah swt?

What is worse in the eyes of sunnis Hazrat Haroon a.s not fight Samiri and co when they were doing greatest sin and being persistent for some time or Imam Ali a.s not fighting the so called caiph of the time because they didn't let Him a.s rule etc?

To me its foolish to apply this analogy to Saqifa because Imam Ali (as) himself disassociates from a Yahoodi who uses the exact same analogical reasoning as the Dozener Shias.

In fact, if there is any comparison then I would apply this analogical reasoning to arbitration which occurred in Siffin between Imam Ali's (as) camp and Muawiyah's camp. According to Allama ibn Abil Hadid and Shaykh Muhammad Abdo the commanders of Imam Ali's (as) camp were bribed which caused them to backstab Imam Ali (as). This is what the Bani Israel did when they worshiped a calf. The golden cow represents materialism and the dunya, and they fell into the trap.